Poetical works of Mathilde Blind/Cedars of Lebanon at Warwick Castle

by Mathilde Blind

 

VIII.— CEDARS OF LEBANON AT WARWICK CASTLE.

Cedars of Lebanon! Labyrinths of Shade,
Making a mystery of open day;
With layers of gloom keeping the Sun at bay.
And solemn boughs which never bloom or fade.
Contemporaries of that great Crusade,
When militant Christendom leaped up one day
Fired by the Cross, and, rushing to the fray,
Poured Eastward as oracular Peter bade.

Borne hither when Christ's Sepulchre was won,
And planted by hoar Warwick's feudal walls,
You grew, o'ershadowing every rival stem.
When English woods don May's fresh coronals,
Say,—Mourn ye still for lost Jerusalem,
Funereal trees—beloved of Lebanon?